Firms could help ease grads' woes

The inconsistency in the job market for college graduates could intensify and even lead to rising unemployment in urban China in the coming years. College graduates have been finding it increasingly difficult to get a job because of multiple factors, especially a mismatch between the national education structure and labor demand.

The number of graduates churned out by universities has increased from 1.6 million in 1999 to 7 million in 2013, representing an average annual growth of 11.83 percent, a figure higher than China's GDP growth rate.

Chinese people's faith in education, especially college education, has deepened after the government expanded the college admission scheme in 1999. Chinese families push their children to acquire higher education in the hope of giving them a brighter future. They believe a college degree is the least a youth requires to succeed in life. As a result, the number of college graduates jumped from 1.6 million in 1999 to 2.12 million in 2003, when the first batch of graduates emerged after the college expansion scheme, and hit 4.13 million in 2006.